After an August primary election that saw the three incumbent Seattle City Councilmembers seeking reelection lead their challengers, new polling suggests that those incumbents are facing stronger headwinds as the general election approaches.
A new independent poll by Strategies 360 shows that approval of the City Council has plunged to 20% favorable and 70% unfavorable. It’s a dramatic change from polling last summer that showed Council favorability at 34% favorable and 48% unfavorable – net unfavorable has soared from 14% in 2022 to 50% this fall.
The reason for the change? Younger and more liberal voters have shifted from having a strongly positive view of the Council to a very negative one. For example, 18 – 24-year-old voters moved from a 50% favorable to 23% unfavorable opinion last summer to a net unfavorable rating of 40% this fall. Voters who self-identify as socialists give the Council a 21% net unfavorable rating.
One final interesting finding of the poll involves how Seattle voters describe their personal politics:
- Socialist 13%
- Very liberal 23%
- Somewhat liberal 26%
- Moderate 23%
- Somewhat conservative 8%
- Very conservative 3%
Stay tuned to see how these poor poll numbers impact this year’s City Council district elections.
